PHASE 2: 300 Tdi and 5 speed Install (continued)
As the build up continues the small touches get added to the Discotech. Here you can see we have installed the Disco Tdi logos on the side. Sure they are normally on the rear door, but we put them on Defender style, one on each side.
Now that the engine is in place and bolted to the gearbox we have started to hook up the systems. Here on the right hand side of the engine bay you can see that we have installed the coolant expansion tank, hooked up the fuel lines (feed and return), installed the fan shroud and hooked up the throttle cable. A few good points when converting a Disco to Tdi are that you can use the stock fuel lines and the stock throttle cable without modifications. In the Defender a new throttle cable is required.
in the right rear of the engine bay we have attached the new heater hoses as well. Now that most of the V8 parts have been removed, and the major changes have already been made to allow the Tdi to fit, the going starts to get a little easier (until we get to wiring). As the Disco was offered as a left hand drive model with the 300 Tdi, a lot of bolt in parts can now be used, and things go pretty quickly. The heater hoses for example, are a correct Rover part that go in easily with no modifications.
This image shows the front of the engine bay and you can see that we have come a long way in a day. All the coolant hoses are now in place, as are the oil cooler hoses, the gearbox cooler hoses and all the turbo and intercooler hoses. In all these systems only the gearbox oil cooler lines need to be modified. The LH engine brace also must be modified to allow use of the gearbox cooler lines, but it all works well.
This image shows the radiator support, few changes have to be made here. The red arrow shows where the radiator retainers usually bolt in, but the Tdi radiator/intercooler assembly is narrower and requires that a new hole be drilled in the panel. The steel here is double layer, and Rover left half the hole open (as the same panel is used V8 or Tdi) so all that is needed is to drill out the second piece of steel and we can use the V8 radiator retainers to hold in the radiator and support the power steering reservoir (green arrow), and that is a major time saver. The Defenders require fabrication in these systems to make them work correctly.
Here you can see the left hand side of the engine bay. The Tdi air box installs easily where the V8 unit used to be and the raised air intake hose plugs directly into the front of it. The turbo hose then comes out of the filter box and hooks into the intake side of the turbo. Also notice that the lower turbo hose to the intercooler and the top intercooler hose have all been installed at this time. If you are wondering what all the little orange marks are it is our double check system here at ECR. As we always have a number of people working on any given Rover, the small paint mark lets the other techs know that the system is done and all bolts are tight, that way no unnecessary time is spent checking systems that have already been double checked. This saves us time, and saves you money.
The engine bay is looking very good. We have a few back ordered parts that are keeping us from installing the air conditioning system at this time, but we'll get into it soon. Its winter in Maine anyway, so AC is not a priority. Now we turn our attention to the exhaust system. In the image above you can see we have installed an NRP full stainless Tdi muffler and tailpipe. We need to cut a little off that tailpipe for off road uses, but otherwise the system fits well and works great.
This image shows the tail end of the Tdi head pipe. This pipe houses the trap oxidizer and the flex joint for the exhaust system, but this only mates to the Tdi tail section and due to frame differences in the USA Discos and the fact that we wanted a full stainless system for Maine winters, we will be mating the stainless steel NRP Tdi rear section to the Tdi head pipe. We do this by removing the flange from the Tdi head pipe, then we remove the flange from the old V8 Y pipe and flare the Tdi head pipe to the same diameter and then weld the new flange to the head pipe. In this image the V8 flange is just sitting there so you can see what we are talking about. Once we finish the piece we will be able to install any V8 tail exhaust system on the Discotech as a direct bolt in. With the full stainless system we won't need to replace it any time soon, but by doing this it makes replacement systems easy to get and quick to install. Special thanks to Rovers North for the NRP tail section.
Hooking up the Tdi into the rest of the NAS Disco is a major trick. We need to make a special engine system wiring harness that gives our Tdi what it needs to start and run, as well as giving the Rover all the systems it needs (sensors for gauges, power for AC systems, etc. etc.). The mating of the two different worlds is done by painstakingly stripping down both the old V8 EFI engine harness from the 4.0 and the 300 Tdis engine harness. The two harnesses are then blended together and installed into the project. The green arrows above show just 3 of the many connectors on the Disco that must be hooked up to make all the Disco's system work correctly with the Tdi. This process is time consuming and tedious, but it all comes out looking like a factory harness that successfully blends the needs of the 300 Tdi with the needs of the NAS Discovery. For a day or so it looks like a serious spaghetti accident, but once done it looks as correct and factory as you see above. The washer fluid bottle is missing from this image so that you can see the wiring configuration.
The simplicity of the Tdi starts to show in the engine bay wiring. yes, it takes quite a bit of time to get the NAS Discovery wiring mated to the Tdi, but a lot of that time is spent removing items that are no longer used in the Discotech. The large GEMS computer is removed and the only real engine control system for the Tdi is this simple relay. It controls the glow plugs for cold starting. The only other electrical aspects of the Tdi are a fuel cut off solenoid, temp. sender, oil sender, tachometer signal and the charging system. Hows that for simple.
To keep our longevity and simplicity theme going, we have installed an Optima battery. This will give us all the power we need and mean no weak or dead battery issues for a long, long term. The Tdi has a great high output alternator on it from the factory, so our charging system will be good to go.
Wiring changes continue inside the Disco as well as under the hood. A number of the systems in the NAS Discos are controlled by the EFI computer, so all those systems must be adapted to run as "stand alone" systems, as the Tdi has no computers. In the long run this makes the Discotech's wiring much simpler and easier to repair.
Other interior changes are needed as well. In this image you can see that we have taken the dash module out and removed the words "UNLEADED FUEL ONLY" from above the fuel gauge. We don't want anyone putting in unlead gasoline, and it makes for a nice completed look, and is part of our standard attention to even the smallest detail, on our projects, or yours.
The fuel fill is now done as well, with the correct factory "Diesel" decals, and is ready for some test fuel as we are now ready to fire up the Tdi for the first time.
This image shows the nearly complete engine bay in the Tdi 1996 Disco. Notice that we have the washer bottle back in, all the electrics are done, the anti-noise cover is now on the top of the engine and the hood is back in place. Now that all the systems are in place (other than the Air Cond. system. We'll detail that install at a later date) it is time to finish up the rest of the suspension, lockers, etc. and get the Discotech out on the road!
Before we hit the trail we have to clean up that NRP exhaust tail section. It works great out of the box for a stock Rover, but with our new rear bumper and the off roading we plan to do, we need to trim it back a bit. The image above shows the shortened NRP tail pipe on the Discotech. That will let us use all the departure angle we have and not worry about mashing the tail pipe flat on a rock off road.
Speaking off off roading, we'll need a new front bumper and a winch, and luckily the Discotech is getting just what it needs. Here you can see that we have installed the Warn XD9000 winch into the Safari Gard bumper and mounted the bumper to the frame. We will be remote mounting the winch solenoid box under the hood so that the area in front of the radiator is not so crowded. This will also make the solenoids really easy to service in case of any future glitches.
This image shows the wrap around corners of the front bumper and the front wheel flares. Notice that no modifications are needed, the bumper fits just fine, even with the flares in place. Please excuse the dust on the bumper, its been hanging out in the paint prep. bay for the past few weeks.
The Discotech is also getting some upgraded lighting. This image shows the 3 Hella 4000 lights installed on the bumper. We've wired these to activate by the factory fog light switch for a nice clean install on the interior. These metal housing Hellas are durable and really nice on those dark nights. Notice we now have the roller fairlead installed on the bumper as well. 2 heavy duty recovery points made for standard shackles will also be installed on the bumper, as well as Safari Gard's front skid plate.
As the front end parts go back on, after some serious trimming to the center grill section to clear the winch, the Discotech is really starting to look like a Rover again. We've even snuck it out of the shop for a few test miles and it drives like a dream.
This image shows the winch remote plug in location. This keeps everything neat and tidy on the exterior, but still easy to use.
Recovery points are ECR ROX units. We don't like the Safari Gard units as they are rated for only 9000 pounds, so we use these simple and bulletproof units that will accept a standard shackle and are very flexible for all your recovery needs.
Now that we've made all the needed wiring and other changes to the interior of the project truck, we can button things up so that we can get some test miles done. Here you can see that we've put the interior back together. We also replaced anything that was worn or broken, as we wanted a clean and fresh looking interior to ride around in.
So with some test wheels and tires the Discotech is up and running!!! The long nights at the shop have paid off and the Discotech is doing great. We've still got to figure out the tire size we are going to use, but more on that in the "Tire and Wheel Section" a little later.
Now that we have done some test miles it time to finish up the details.
One of those is the conversion of the Air Conditioning system. The compressor
from the old V8 won't work, nor will the high pressure or suction hoses,
so we have gutted all that and have installed the correct 3o0 Tdi AC compressor
onto the engine, as seen above. The hoses are new, but the good thing is
that they plug into the factory locations, making the lines and compressor
of the Series I Disco very simple to convert. The wiring of this system
(remember this is an x-GEMS EFI Rover) is another story, it is too complicated
to document here.
This image shows the rear AC hose, mated to the factory original, very
straight forward and a simple install. Green arrow shows the new line,
red arrow shows the factory original line.
The front AC line is the same, nice and simple and easily done once the
compressor is in place (red arrow shows the new line, mated to the old
line, green arrow). If you are doing your own Discotech style project,
be sure and change the filter drier in the AC system when you change these
lines.That is it for the AC system swap over, charge the system as per
the factory specioficatioin with R134A and you'll be "cool".
Thanks for checking out the Discotech Project! Be sure to let ECR know
if we can service or upgrade your Discovery to make it world class... just
like this one!
This image doesn't really relate to the 300 Tdi install, but as we have
no special section for it we'll stick it in here. In the image above you
can see that we have deleted the ABS brakes from the Discotech. This entails
some minor wiring changes, a new master cylinder and a little re-plumbing
of the brake pipes. We did this for simplicity. The fewer computers in
our Disco the better, and this also frees up quite a bit of space under
the hood when you remove the ABS components.
If you have any special requests or questions about anything on your Disco
or our Discotech project, feel free to email.
We'll be more than happy to help.
PHASE 1: Paint and Body
PHASE 3: Stage II Suspension,
wheels and tires
PHASE 4: Differentials, ARB
lockers, etc
PHASE 5: Seat covers, roof rack
and the rest